Organic polymers are generally electrical insulators and therefore they are used as insulating material in electrical and electronic components. It is known that the polymer obtains electrically conductive properties if it contains a poly-conjugated bond system of, for example, double bonds, triple bonds, aromatic or hetero-aromatic rings. Said conductivity is termed intrinsic conductivity. Examples of such polymers are polyacetylene, polythiophene and polypyrrole. In general, the conductivity of these polymers is low because these polymers are semiconductors having a relatively large band gap of 1.5-4 eV. The conductivity can be increased by (electro)chemically oxidizing or reducing the polymer. Said oxidation or reduction treatment is termed doping. By oxidation p-type conductors are formed; by reduction n-type conductors are formed. In the oxidation or reduction treatment, charge carriers are formed on the polymer chains, which charges are compensated for by oppositely charged counterions. The expression "alternating copolymer" is to be understood to mean a polymer which is composed of two different monomers which are alternately incorporated in the polymer chain. In general, polymers are cheap and can be readily processed, so that it is attractive to use conductive polymers in conductive and semiconductive structures in (integrated) electronic circuits, electrodes for batteries, antistatic coatings and electromagnetic protective layers.
A conductive alternating copolymer is known from an article by J. Kowalik et al., Synthetic Metals, 41-43 (1991) 435-438. In said article, a description is given of a semiconductive alternating copolymer on the basis of benzoquinone and pyrrole which are reacted to form poly(2-pyrrolyl-1,4-benzoquinone). The polymer obtained is p-type semiconductive and "disordered" and is produced by oxidative polymerization of pyrrole and benzoquinone. The band gap of the polymer formed is not mentioned in said article.
A disadvantage of the known method is the presence of an oxidizing agent, namely p-chloranil, during the polymerization reaction, which causes the polymer obtained to be doped and p-type conductive. It is impossible or very difficult to obtain the undoped, i.e. intrinsically conductive polymer, from said polymer. A further disadvantage is the "disordered" polymer structure which adversely affects the conductivity.